Xenon: A 1 Tonne Liquid Xenon Experiment for a Sensitive Dark Matter Search

Abstract

XENON is a novel liquid xenon experiment concept for a sensitive dark matter search using a 1-tonne active target, distributed in an array of ten independent time projection chambers. The design relies on the simultaneous detection of ionization and scintillation signals in liquid xenon, with the goal of extracting as much information as possible on an event-by-event basis, while maintaining most of the target active. XENON is expected to have effective and redundant background identification and discrimination power, higher than 99.5%, and to achieve a very low threshold, on the order of 4 keV visible recoil energy. Based on this expectation and the 1-tonne mass of active xenon, we project a sensitivity of 0.0001 events/kg/day, after 3 yr operation in an appropriate underground location. The XENON experiment has been recently proposed to the National Science Foundation (NSF) for an initial development phase leading to the development of the 100 kg unit module.

A running spectral index in supersymmetric dark-matter models with quasistable charged particles

“…8. We also indicate the current exclusion limits from the CDMS experiment [46] and the expected reach of the XENON 1-ton facility [47].…”

“…8 and for the Higgsino and W-ino (mAMSB) cases, as discussed in Secs. VIII B and VIII C, together with the current exclusion limits from the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) experiment [46] and the future reach of the XENON 1-ton facility [47]. For B-inos, at > 0 most points lie within less than 1 order of magnitude with respect to the future projected sensitivity, making it conceivable that this scenario may be tested in next-generation facilities.…”

Top-squark-mediated annihilation scenario and direct detection of dark matter in compressed supersymmetry

“…Projections for two representative next-generation experiments, the XENON100 [63] and SuperCDMS 25kg at SNOLAB [64], appear as dashed lines. The lowest line is the projection for a ton-scale Xenon experiment, XENON1T [63]. The data for these lines came from the compilation and comparison data archive at [65].…”

Preparation of neutron-activated xenon for liquid xenon detector calibration

“…In recent years, LXe has also attracted interest as a material for direct dark matter detection [5,6,7,8,9], in which hypothetical weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) can be detected from their elastic scattering from target xenon nuclei, producing a signal with energy of a few keV. LXe satisfies the requirements for a sensitive dark matter detection due to its scalability to large masses, good background discrimination and lowenergy threshold.…”